Scholarship

I went down to Gardner for Mo's senior awards ceremony. I knew she was in line for something, and sure enough she got a scholarship for kids on the autism spectrum courtesy a couple of her peers' mother. She went up, accepted with a signature 'Oh yay!' and then stood on the stage as if she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. Until someone stage whispered for her to go sit down and she did. The pic I got was kinda garbage because it was darker than a cave and I was far away to boot. But still proud of my little honyock.

I wasn't sure if there was anything else she'd be called up for, but there was. Four year academic letter, I believe, though by that point I'd kind of zoned out. I'm sure most of the other parents tuned my kiddo out, too, it's the nature of such honors. But when Mo didn't go up to receive this recognition, I realized she'd already fled the premises.

The artist formerly known as Frau Lobster had figured she'd reached the end of her attention span for such events, and maybe she had (though Mo's pretty good at the audience thing as long as you communicate to her that she needs to simmer down and not cause a ruckus).

Then I got to thinking, there's lots of shortcomings I have as a parent, but I rarely if ever miss my kid's school events. I think it's happened somewhere in the past 19 years, but I can't think of when. I thought, I even outlasted my own kid at her honors awards ceremony, that has to be a decent Dad on some level.